Is remote work the future?

absolutely dislike remote work. IB is collaborative, so it will be an in-person type of job to the extent of 2 days in the office or more a week. SWE and other tech jobs will likely be remote. Once commercial real estate leases are up for big companies, I'd expect more and more non-banking companies to embrace work from home or hybrid models for all workers. 

For some, who want to lower their office footprint, they'll stick to WFH.

For those who want people in the office, this recession will destroy any "power" the labor market thinks it has. People will be back to doing anything their employer asks to put food on the table.

Think hybrid will be the way forward for now. There are definitely benefits of collaboration and being in the office, but it's also nice to have a day or two each week to get personal chores done or just work from bed/couch

I much prefer in the office, but for some of my dad’s friends who live in the suburbs with kids and have to commute 90 min each way, WFH or at least hybrid is probably paradise

Hybrid probably the best solution for 60+% of people. Young people generally prefer office for social aspect (20s) and another 20-25% prefer remote due to max flexibility. Ultimately a menu of options makes the most sense for people in different stages of life & different preferences. That said, full office is not something any sane remotely talented person would want to do. Also fully remote does potentially carry with it the issue of promotions.

I'd contemplate going fully remote (only to live in a different city though, otherwise current hybrid setup is fine) but right now I'm an associate so I don't think I could negotiate it & even if I could it would hurt my chances of getting promoted. If I stay at my firm, I'll wait until I'm an analyst and then go remote. After that the only steps are sr. analyst (more pay basically) and then PM. Becoming PM totally remote I think would not be possible so career at this firm would cap out at sr. analyst. Which is fine as I'm not sure I ever want to be PM. Sr. analyst would not be a problem if I was crushing it remotely for 5ish years as an analyst & then visiting HQ once a qtr or so.

We'll see how things go. But no matter how much boomer bosses want you fully in office, it's not happening. I'm usually not the guy shitting on boomers but in this case I think they're retarded to expect such a thing. Everyone millennial / Gen Z understands hybrid / remote are important options (and millennials are now entering the C-suite) so this is here to stay. You can't stuff the genie back into the bottle 

Yeah, I’m really not sure how this is going to evolve. I’ve really liked hybrid--we go in 3x a week and stay home 2x. I live alone so I’m super efficient at home but at work I learn a lot and have fun with my co-workers, though I’m less efficient. But then one of my co-workers said the other day that he’d move to Texas in a heartbeat if they allowed full-time telework, but so long as it’s hybrid he has to stay in commute distance to work in the Mid-Atlantic. So you can really see the push and pull of the debate, and hybrid isn’t really a sufficient compromise for people who don’t want to live in the area. 

My feeling is that full-time telework will be for certain jobs and/or as a bonus someone can earn for their service or to keep them from leaving.

There's days where I definitrely think we should be able to WFH so I can do my mundane bullshit in peace with my classical playlist blasting on the speakers. Other times, I need to be in the office so I have someone I can throw under the bus for screwing up the consulting project on the call and make them know it. No one communicates anyways, so that issue is just going to happen unfortunately.

Hell, when I'm in the office I move over to my old office space to take the room for myself (because since I'm the one person on the team actually in our city which means I have to actually show up but my lead and everyone else get to work permanently remote where they live) just to get away from everyone else but able to say "I was there". Plus, if you're making me come into the office, reimburse my damn monthly parking expense instead of just saying "well it's FSA so it's at least pre-tax!" Great, but it's still $1,200/yr out of my salary JUST TO COME TO FUCKING WORK IN THE FIRST PLACE.

So take a wild guess about if I think we should be able to work remote permanently or not.

Edit: And oh yeah, bossman says that the office is so nicely equipped that there's not going to be any kind of reimbursement scheme for office supplies for at home like having to buy my own g-d damned docking station for the one day a week we do get to work remote. Then give us some F'in docking stations in the office itself you pretentious jerk!

People saying “but what about promotions to VP level” are missing the forest for the trees

you’re right that in office will be easier to collaborate, be seen, and advance your career. Where you’re wrong is thinking millennials and Gen z care about that compared to the freedom of wfh / hybrid 

it’s also why low end jobs can’t attract anyone. Why work 9-5 set schedule at a restaurant or in retail if you can make similar money in the gig economy and have complete command of your schedule?

people want flexibility. Those who want to advance now have the Red Sea parted for them a bit because it’ll never be easier to separate from the pack

I think hybrid is going to be the way.  WFH shot my career in the foot.  Initially it was kind of sort of a break.  The initial advantage was no commute, but even driving home is kind of nice for unwinding.  Eventually communication went to hell, my home office became a dungeon, I went from wanting to be a top performer to wanting to mail it in and I started to not give a shit about my coworkers at all.  Going in and a month later it was a near 180.  Performance improved and I’m generally just happier.  On occasion having a day to roll out of bed and work isn’t the worst.  Also, working sick is much nicer from home than being in the office.

I think the exceptionally strong labour market gave many people a lot of leverage to decide WFH or not i.e. ”oh if you dont allow WFH i'll just go to x y or z they are hiring". Like Five Star said, this recession will force many back into the office if their company so wishes (Tesla).